Pamelius

Who was Pamelius?

Jacobus Pamelius was a Flemish theologian.

He was born at Bruges and educated at the Cistercian Abbey of Boneffe in the Province of Namur. He studied philosophy at Louvain, and on 27 March 1553, he was promoted magister artium. For the next nine years he studied theology under the direction of Ruard Tapper and Josse Ravestein and after receiving the baccalaureate he followed the course of the Sorbonne. On 19 June 1561, he was made a canon of St-Donatien at Bruges, and was ordained priest probably 21 February 1562.

He visited all the libraries of the Low Countries to procure manuscripts and unedited works, and devoted himself to the publication of rare texts, beginning with the Micrologus de ecclesiasticis observationibus, a liturgical commentary of the Roman Ordo which dates probably from the beginning of the twelfth century. From 1568 to 1571, Pamelius was dean of the chrétienté of Bruges. He was appointed in 1570 as a member of the commission for the examination of books by Remi Drieux, Bishop of Bruges, and aided in the publication of the Index expurgatorius of 1571.

In 1574, he replaced George de Vrieze as scholar of the chapter of St-Donatien and shared in the installation of the college of the Jesuits at Bruges in 1575. The protection which Pamelius extended to the victims of Calvinistic violence at Bruges drew upon him hatred, and he was obliged to withdraw to Douai in 1578.